Ask the Author: Robert Edward
Answered Questions (6)
Robert Edward
It's a planned trilogy, so one more. I hope to have the final volume out this summer.
Robert Edward
America Asunder is the sequel to Edge of a Knife. For some reason Goodreads didn't link the two as a series. So you'll want to read Edge of a Knife first. And thank you for the interest!
Robert Edward
You can't let that be an excuse. You HAVE to put fingers to keys, even when you don't want to, even when you'd rather surf the internet, even when you can come up with a million other excuses. Force yourself to sit and do the work. If you fall into the habit of allowing yourself to make excuses, you'll always find a reason to talk yourself out of writing. If you wait until the "perfect" moment to write, nothing will get written.
Robert Edward
Put fingers to keys and do it. Version 1 will suck, but get the words out of your brain. Then make it better.
Robert Edward
As a kid, I really liked playing RPGs, both tabletop and videogame console, and I read just about every DragonLance novel written up until I went to college (right after Dragons of Summer Flame, if you want to try to do the math). I wanted to write about a small party going on a series of adventures set against the arc of an epic event.
So then I needed the setting. I knew I wanted to write in 19th century America with a magical element to it. At first I wanted to try early 1800s, Jackson-era. Probably from the aforementioned childhood, my first ideas involved dragons. I imagined dragons living in the Rocky Mountains, Arizona desert, maybe the Louisiana swamps. But I couldn't craft a world in which anything resembling America would have formed on a continent populated by dragons.
So I scrapped the idea of magical monsters and went with human sorcerers. Elemental magic was a natural fit. As a fan of Joss Whedon's Firefly series, I always liked his allegorical premise-- what happens to the people on the losing side after a civil war? So I started with the idea that elemental magic altered the result of the American Civil War and went from there, building the world as the writing prompted questions that needed answering.
So then I needed the setting. I knew I wanted to write in 19th century America with a magical element to it. At first I wanted to try early 1800s, Jackson-era. Probably from the aforementioned childhood, my first ideas involved dragons. I imagined dragons living in the Rocky Mountains, Arizona desert, maybe the Louisiana swamps. But I couldn't craft a world in which anything resembling America would have formed on a continent populated by dragons.
So I scrapped the idea of magical monsters and went with human sorcerers. Elemental magic was a natural fit. As a fan of Joss Whedon's Firefly series, I always liked his allegorical premise-- what happens to the people on the losing side after a civil war? So I started with the idea that elemental magic altered the result of the American Civil War and went from there, building the world as the writing prompted questions that needed answering.
Robert Edward
Edited June 9: My fifth book. It's a fantasy story set in another world, so I'm doing a lot of fantasy cartography and history right now. Eventually I'll get to writing the actual book!
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